Hugh Wolff

Hugh Wolff (born October 21, 1953 in Paris ) is an American conductor .

Life

Wolff studied with George Crumb ( composition ) and Leon Fleisher ( piano ) and at Harvard , majoring in composition under Leon Kirchner and piano with Leonard Shure until graduation. He then received a fellowship in Paris for one year. There he studied conducting with Charles Bruck and composition with Olivier Messiaen .

He began his career as a conductor in 1979. Thanks to the Exxon funding program, he was able to take up an assistant position under Mstislav Rostropovich at the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. In the same year he was able to end a tour with great public recognition by successfully representing the sick Antal Doráti .

He made his Carnegie Hall debut with Rostropovich as cello soloist and the orchestra in 1980. From 1982 he was Associate Conductor until 1985 when he took over the leadership of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra . From 1992 to 2000 he was music director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and from 1997 to 2006 director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (formerly the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra ). Today he has regular engagements with the major US, German and international orchestras. Since autumn 2008 Wolff has held the position of "Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras" at the renowned New England Conservatory in Boston . In 2017 he became chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels.

Hugh Wolff has a very extensive repertoire, ranging from the early baroque to the avant-garde . He is considered a specialist in American music (e.g. George Antheil , Aaron Jay Kernis ) and, together with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, has set standards with his historically informed Beethoven and Haydn interpretations .

Hugh Wolff is married to Judith Kogan .